UX (user experience) is king. The user must be kept in mind if any software company, or any company with an online presence, wants to succeed in the era of technology. Unfortunately, not every software or website provides a seamless, intuitive, or attractive user experience.
Some potential user experience issues could include illegible font, bad color combinations, broken links, poor navigation, etc. To ensure that all these elements to a webpage are performing correctly and with the user in mind, website rely on QA testers, or software testing.
What is quality software?
Every product needs to meet the user’s expectations. That includes a company’s website. A website that has the user in mind should withstand unforeseen problems that may cause disruptions and/or losses. The user thinks of a seamless, enjoyable experience when they think about quality software.
Quality software also pertains to quality management, or consistency among an organization’s products. If a company has multiple products or softwares, it’s important that there is consistency among each of these products.
What Is QA Software Testing?
Software quality assurance (SQA) testing, or software testing, assures that the website experience is properly executed before a user interacts with it. Quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) testers test websites while it is being developed to improve any malfunctions, or defects, using tools such as ISO 9000 and performing security testing.
Now that users have many products, websites, or software options that are readily and easily available, QA testing is more important than ever if a business wants to be successful. If the software, or website, isn’t up to snuff, the user will go looking for something else. There are no second chances with technology.
You might ask, what is QA testing? And to put it simply,a QA tester’s job is to prevent bad software or technology from being seen by customers by trying to break it. QA testers try to break software by performing manual or automated tests that take the website or software through every scenario to find where the website malfunctions. If there is a malfunction found, a QA tester will have the developer re-develop that part of the software and then reiterate the process until there are no more bugs found.
What does a career in software QA testing look like?
Most tech companies have a need for software developers and QA testers. And, the demand for QA engineers is increasing as tech companies are starting to realize that UX is king. According to the Stack Overflow blog, in 2017 QA was considered one of the fastest growing targets out there, which means, in their opinion, there is an increase in demand for QA testers but not enough qualified people to fill these positions. If you find QA testing an attractive career, there are plenty of jobs out there for you.
With that in mind, the average salary for software QA testers is $65,480 according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
What Skills Do I Need to Be a QA Tester?
An understanding of software is crucial. While you don’t need to have programming mastered to go into QA testing, having the tools to learn software development will only help you become a more successful QA tester. From finding bugs to ensuring the end product is easy and user-friendly, QA testers have a diverse range of responsibilities requiring a broad set of skills.From excellent attention to detail to the ability to getting deep into the data you’re reporting and prioritizing to fix bugs within the code.
For the best qualifications and skills to have as a QA you should consider the following skills as the “essentials” to accurate, actionable and successful QA testing:
An Understanding of Software
As a QA tester, understanding how the software works (also how it’s developed) will give you a big leg-up in your career as employers find out you understand software development.
One of the best reasons why it’s wise to be proficient in coding as a QA tester is that people who know coding well typically have good reasoning skills.
Problem-Solving Skills
Not only is QA testing about finding bugs within the code, but it’s also important to note that its prioritizing the bugs that are the most important to resolve.
QA testers that can identify the bugs with the largest contributing factors to major problems within the code are the best positioned to work out what needs to be prioritized to create a great application.
Discipline
QA testing can be a very repetitive process, so it’s easy to lose focus after analyzing and reporting for long periods of time. Since so much of the job can seem repetitive, QA testers have to possess a sense of discipline to get through the job.
Finding bugs can be a very time consuming process, particularly when you’re testing a large scale application on multiple hardware and software combinations.
Effective Communication Skills
There is sometimes a misconception that people think of QA testing as a process that doesn’t involve very much communication or collaboration. In reality, QA testing actually involves plenty of back-and-forth between the project’s stakeholders to collaborate on the most ideal product.
How do I know if a career in software QA is a good fit for me?
Most everyone knows that right now is a great time to join the tech community, but some don’t have the time to learn how to code. Software assurance QA testing is easy to learn and not code intensive. You will have to learn some coding, but not to the same extent as a software or web developer. Software QA test training typically takes six to ten weeks, whereas web development training takes anywhere from 12-26 weeks.
Being a software quality assurance analyst could be a great fit for you if you’re good at communicating and like to break things. Some other skills you will have to learn include functional automation and scripting, basics of web technologies, agile methodologies, and more.
How do I become a QA tester?
If you find yourself lacking some fo the skills needed to start a career in software QA, coding bootcamp is a great way for you to get the training you need to begin your career quickly.
You can find software QA training bootcamps that last six to ten weeks costing you somewhere between $7,000-$10,000. At software QA bootcamp, you can learn the necessary skills needed to get into a QA job quickly whether you have a coding background or not.
If you’re asking yourself what is QA testing and if it is a good career choice for you, click here to read “A Day in the Life of a QA Engineer.”
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A Day in the Life of a QA Engineer
